ACTIVITY 1: Expectations, first impressions, being immersed.
You have now been in Italy for at least 6 weeks if not longer. You have probably begun to establish a
routine and have worked out how to meet most of your day-to-day needs in your new town. This is a good
time to reflect back on your arrival and the first few weeks of your Year Abroad.
1. Below is a reflection from an Irish student arriving in Italy in October. After reading this text,
describe your experience of arriving in Italy and travelling to your accommodation for the first time.
How did you feel when you first saw the town you would be staying in? How did you feel when you
entered your apartment? What did you do or say to display or hide your feelings? Did these
feelings and actions match your expectations of your first day?
Reference: SME: Chapter five, Location 3087
2. Now expand on your description by exploring some related thoughts and experiences from the last
six weeks that stand out in your memory. Use the Guiding Questions below as a starting point - but
please note, that these are guides only - you may choose to address all, or some, or none of them
in your personal reflection. Include photos and/or other digitial material in your reflection.
Guiding Questions
 What did you find most enjoyable about the experience of arriving in Italy? What was most confronting
or difficult for you?
 How have your personal stereotypes of Italians and Italian culture been challenged since you have
arrived? Have you encountered stereotypes about ERASMUS students or about people from your
cultural background amongst the Italians you have met so far?
 What were your priorities when you first arrived? Were you able to fulfil these easily? What are your
daily priorities now?
ACTIVITY 2: Culture shock and transition: being home and away
1. Culture shock : being away
Culture shock might result from a mismatch of expectations and experience, or from continued
exposure to an unfamiliar set of values and practices that require an individual to question and
adapt their own beliefs, behaviours and assumptions about others. Do you think you have
experienced culture shock during your time in Italy?
Here are a selection of words that your peers used in the online survey to describe their
perceptions of Italian culture before they left Warwick:
Relaxed; enthusiastic; welcoming; warm; proud; disorganised; fashion conscious; friendly; open;
artistic; not always punctual; easy going; family focussed; quite monolingual; flamboyant; sociable;
spontaneous; less respectful of women.
Do these descriptions of Italian culture match your experience of living in Italy so far? What
cultural characteristics have you observed? Are these characteristics that you enjoy or that you
sometimes find difficult to accommodate?
2. Christmas Break: being home
Below are some reflections on the experience of going home for Christmas in the middle of the
study abroad period.
Reference: SME: Chapter Six, Location 3490
Feelings of uneasiness and ambivalence can often arise for people when moving between cultural
contexts – in one location, or in both. Do any of the reflections above reflect your experience? Did
you expect to have any difficulty re-adapting to your home environment after your time in Italy?
Guiding questions:
 Describe some of the major differences that you have observed between ways of living and
studying in Italy and at Warwick and/or in your home town. Would you describe any of these
as ‘cultural’ differences?
 Are teaching and learning practices and expectations in Italy very different to your experience
in the UK? Do you have any clear preferences for one way of doing things over the other? If so,
why?
 Being exposed to the ways that other people do things can sometimes make us more
conscious of our own habits and taken-for-granted values. Have you noticed anything new
about your own strengths, vulnerabilities and personal values during your first 2-3 months in
Italy?
 What were you most looking forward to and what are you most enjoying about your visit
home? Have you found it easy or difficult to fit back in?
 Have you noticed anything different about your home town and how you interact with people
in your community after your time in Italy? Do you feel as though you have developed a ‘new
lens’?
 What are you looking forward to, or not looking forward to, about your return to Italy?
 Are you planning to continue working on your Italian language skills while you are at home
(e.g. reading) or do you feel that you need a complete break from Italian Studies?
Activity 3: At home in Italy?
1. Making a home in Italy : Erasmus culture vs ‘local culture’?
How do you create a sense of ‘home’ for yourself in your town or city? How does your Erasmus
network contribute to your efforts to feel at home? What elements of local culture do you draw
on in your efforts to feel at home? And what do you bring with you from your home country as
you try to create a new home in Italy?
Optional exercise
Is Erasmus culture the same everywhere? Find four ERASMUS videos on You Tube – one from Italy
and three from other countries. Comment on your observations. Then find a video that captures
something about your experience of local Italian culture. Are there any similarities or points of
connection (or any clear contradictions) in the values expressed in the Erasmus videos and the
Italian video? (include the You Tube links in your submission)
2. ‘Cultural Informants ‘
Thomas is a German student studying in France. He explains below how different people helped
him to understand different aspects of French culture. Use this text as a starting point to reflect
on how you gather local knowledge. Do you have ‘cultural informants’? Do they provide
information that helps you feel ‘at home’? How do you use that information?
Reference: SME: Chapter Eight, Location 4380
ACTIVITY FOUR: Regional Italy, Global Italy
1) Regional Italy [regional cultural literacy; Intercultural communication and competence ]
The following segment of text explores the idea that language is a way into culture.
Reference: SME: Chapter Eight, Location 4380
You have now had quite some time to become more familiar with the idiomatic use of Italian in
your place of residence. Do you feel as though you learned anything new about what it means to
be Italian in Pisa or Forli or Siena or Pavia? Can you identify particular ways of speaking or
behaving that are especially typical of town where you are living? Have you heard people talking
about the characteristics that they believe make them unique in their region?
2) Italy in Europe: (global cultural literacy; Intercultural communication and competence)
Have your perceptions of Italian politics and national identity shifted over the last few months as a
result of reading and listening to Italian media? Have your perceptions of politics and national
identity in your home country shifted as a result of being exposed to Italian perspectives?
What do you think it might mean to be a ‘European citizen’? How might this be different or similar
to being a citizen of your home country or a citizen of your host country/ies.
Contemporary employment crisis for young people in Europe? How might ERASMUS experience
relate to this situation?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/28/europes-lost-generation-young-eu
3. Italian perceptions of foreigners
ACTIVITY FIVE : TAKING STOCK
1) Career Development
This task asks you to apply or ‘translate’ some of the insights and reflections and experiences you
have recorded in your previous journal entries (and practicum activities) into a practical context:
Imagine that you are applying for your ideal job – the job you most fantasise about.
Find an advertisement online for a similar job (make sure you submit the advertisement with your
journal activity so we can see what you are applying for – it can be a graduate job or the director
of an international organisation – whatever appeals to you. If the advertisement is not in English
please translate it roughly to capture your understanding of it).
Now attempt to address the non-technical selection criteria (i.e. the general ones about personal
values and qualities) by focusing on your experiences during your Year Abroad. For example, what
interpersonal skills have you developed? How would you demonstrate in your application that you
are a confident intercultural communicator? Can you present evidence of your ability to work as
part of a team and to work independently? How might you describe your levels of ‘cultural
literacy’?
Have a look on the Warwick careers centre webpage for information about how to address
selection criteria. You should also look for information specific to the industry or job you are
applying to. Include your research with your submission.
2) Achievements and Ongoing Goals
After completing the exercise above, make a list of your achievements and of the goals you are
now working towards as you come towards the end of your Year Abroad. You may find it helpful
to look back at your earlier journal entries as you do this. Use the following headings to structure
your list of dot points.
Achievements:
 Personal / Cultural/ Social
 Academic/ Linguistic /Professional
Goals:
1. Personal
 Short term
 Mid term
 Long term
2. Professional
 Short term
 Mid term
 Long term
ACTIVITY SIX
Activity 6 will ask you to submit a multimedia presentation (e.g powerpoint slides or something
similar) including photos, perhaps some sound recordings or whatever other resources you have
available to you. We will ask you to provide the following - using words and images:

a summary or your Year Abroad experience focussing on key moments, locations, people,
activities (positive and negative)...
 Reflections on your feelings about leaving Italy, your plans for marking the end of the
experience and any ideas you have for building your Italian experience into your future
plans...
 Your thoughts about returning to Warwick and how your experience abroad might modify
your perceptions of Warwick campus, with its international dimension...